Spring Break: Day One

Because writing a single post about my spring break trip would be about 10,000 words, I have decided to break up my experience by days.  Let us begin.

Despite the best efforts of some of our group members, we managed to reach the airport with plenty of time to spare.  The flight was a great chance to see just how big the city of Beijing really is.  The view from the plane was one of never ending stretches of buildings, until you reach the surrounding countryside.  About 100 miles out you start to see hills and valleys like those pictured below.

Not the worst thing to stare at during a flight, eh?

Landing in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, I was reminded that China has dozens of cities with populations that exceed my own home state of North Carolina.  Chengdu, a city most Westerners have never even heard of, has a population of more than 14 million people.  That's almost double that of New York City.  The economic success of the city is made apparent by the Ferrari, Porsche, and just about every other luxury or exotic car dealership that line the road near the airport.  That includes some brands that I have never even seen in person, brands that make things like this.  We quickly found our way to the bus stop, and headed to our first destination, the Leshan Giant Buddha.  The city of Leshan is about a two hour bus ride South of Chengdu.  Like Chengdu, you've probably never heard of it, but it also has a population of about 3.5 million people.  For comparison, Atlanta has a population of about 430,000.  We headed to the hotel, which was the best $14 I have ever spent.

All this for the price of a movie at an American hotel.

After dropping off our stuff, we decided to forgo taxis in favor of rickshaws, a decision that would prove to be, well, less than relaxing.  Let's start with the fact that these tiny little three wheeled contraptions are piloted by some of the gutsiest people I have ever met.  How else do you explain the fact that they will cross four lanes of traffic, in rush hour, without a second thought.

This is the face of fear.

This, however, was not the real problem.  That didn't come till we reached the first hill, and realized that our 80 pound pilot was definitely not capable of pulling upwards of 300 pounds of foreigners up any kind of incline.

She was no Lance Armstrong, but she had heart, I'll give her that.

This was perfectly fine when we had about 100 feet of hill to climb, but things got pretty hairy when we reached the first half mile hill.  The result was our friends in the other two rickshaws receding into the distance, while we walked behind our little pilot.  For the record, we helped her push the thing for about a mile, because we're gentlemen.

I had time to stop and tie my shoes, take this picture, and probably read a book before she was this far from me.

Having burned more than a few calories, we reached the Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area.  Inside we found some of the most impressive architecture and art that I have ever seen, and which I will summarize below.

These locks are inscribed with the names of two people and placed here to represent the fact that they will be together forever.  But only if you're willing to pay 15 bucks.  There were thousands. 

A convenient napping spot

After about an hour of wandering and appreciating, we reached the big guys himself, the Leshan Giant Buddha.  At 267 feet tall, he is the largest stone Buddha in the world.  It's hard to describe just how impressive something carved out of mountain, in 907 AD, really is.  So I'll just have to show you.

It was absolutely breathtaking.  I could have sat there and stared at it all day, but limited time, and rumbling stomachs, nixed that plan.  So we headed back into the city, this time taking a proper taxi.  We capped off the day with an authentic Sichuan dinner on the street.  This included the requisite spicy pepper which I consumed on a dare, and then proceeded to cry for 20 minutes.  It was totally worth it.